More than half of the cars are more than 15 years old. And it’s going to get worse

In 2035, Europa will prohibit the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines, except for those that run on synthetic fuels, e-fuels. And although this ban will be reviewed, or confirmed, in 2026, the administrations are trying to get us to switch to electric cars, discouraging the use of older cars.

Among these measures, the ZBEo Low Emission Zones of adopted by many cities in which older gasoline cars and not so old diesel cars can no longer circulate, like in Madrid. The problem is that in Spain we have one of the mobile parks oldest on the continent. One in two vehicles that circulates on our roads is more than 15 years old.

New cars becoming more expensive and older cars on the streets

The age The average vehicle fleet in Spain is 14.2 yearsaccording to data from the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC). Spain continues to have one of the oldest parks in Europe, exceeding the continent’s average age of 12.3 years. Within the European Union, only the former countries of the Eastern bloc and Greece They surpass us.

“Of the more than 30 million vehicles circulating in Spain in 2023, it is worrying that nearly 15 million were 15 or more years old,” warns the ANFAC report. Fewer and fewer new cars are sold and more and more second-hand cars. In the last year, for each new passenger car registered, about 1.3 passenger cars more than 10 years old have been sold.

Far from reducing, the aging of the vehicle fleet continues to increase. In Spain, in fact, it has not stopped increasing, going from an average age of 8 years in 2008 to 14.2% in 2023.

With an increasingly older park, we find that almost the 30% of the cars registered in Spain cannot enter one of the ZBEs launched in more than 100 Spanish cities as they are models without an environmental label from the DGT. They are cars mostly older than 2000 (gasoline) and 2006 (diesel).

The proportion of cars with a B label, cars mostly from before 2006 (gasoline) and 2015 (diesel), is similar: 29.8%. Thus, nearly 60% of the cars circulating in Spain are more than 10 years old, and almost a quarter of the 30 million cars in the country are more than 20 years old.

Cars with C label account for more than 35%. Even so, it does not imply an improvement in the rejuvenation of the vehicle fleet. And these label C are mostly cars after 2006, if they are gasoline, and, in the case of diesel, mostly after 2015. That is, they are cars that can be up to 20 years old.

Not only do these figures delay the renovation of the Spanish park, but they hamper compliance with the emissions reduction targets demanded from Europe. Demands that clearly do not take into account the different standards of living in the European Union. According to ACEA data, Greece and Estonia had the oldest vehicle fleets in 2023, with vehicles almost 17 years old. The newest passenger cars, on the other hand, are found in the richest country in the Union, Luxembourg, with an average of 7.6 years.

It is evident that more new hybrid or electric cars are not bought because they are simply too expensive for a good part of Spain and Europe. The economic situation does not help because the purchasing power is equal or lower, taking into account inflation, but cars are much more expensive than beforeso much the new ones as the occasion ones. According to the OCU, the new ones have risen more than 40% in five years, an increase that is well above the official CPI data accumulated over all this time.

Furthermore, with the end of the cheap carthere are not even ultra basic options that simply fulfill the function of taking us from point A to point B. Which explains why the Dacia Sandero, one of the cheapest models on the market, is systematically at the top of the sales lists. in Europe and in Spain.

The regulations that require cars to be equipped with a whole series of sophisticated safety and driving assistance systems, ADAS, as well as anti-pollution systems, make cars increasingly expensive.

On the other hand, it must be recognized that cars age better than in the past. The generational gap between, for example, a Citroën AX and a Citroën Saxo was abysmal, in all aspects. In this last decade, the fundamental differences between, say, a 2009 SEAT Ibiza and a current one are minimal.

The ADAS systems of the 2009 version are more basic than the new one, which also equips more systems, but those differences that are not obvious are what make many people not feel the need to change cars.

On the other hand, beyond the CO2 and NOX emissions caused by an aging vehicle fleet, there is the delicate issue of maintenance of these cars. And there are many that have very poor maintenance.

In Spain, The vehicles are getting worse and worse and many do not even pass the MOTboth due to absenteeism and not being able to pass the inspection. According to AECA-ITV data, in 2022, 81.4% of cars passed the ITV in the first inspection and 34% of the vehicles that should have passed the ITV simply did not do so.

The transition to electric transportation is an undeniable need, but this transition will not be made at the same pace in all countries. And even less by imposition.